Mummy, where do baby Neopets come from?

[jesse_rocket]

And with no need for anyone to get in the slightest bit graphic, too.

 

 

So, I was looking at THE PLOT and thinking about the Brynn/Hanso relationship. And it struck me that it could never work. Not on a personal level, but like...y'know. One of them is a Kougra, one is an Ixi, they're completely different species. They're not even of the same basic order. So they would never be able to reproduce together, but this doesn't seem to be a problem, for anyone, as far as relationships go. This goes to show that romantic relationships between the more anthropomorphic neopets is based more on nice G-rated feelings of companionship and love, free from the barriers of practicality, which is lovely.

 

But it raises the question, where do new, young Neopets come from?

 

No-one in a plot or whatever that I've seen (and I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this, I've only done little research) makes any mention of their parentage, and likewise you never see any Neopets nurturing their young, but they do sometimes have siblings. Also, clearly the existence of babies within Neopia isn't unheard of, what with the baby paintbrushes and whatnot. But if Neopets don't reproduce in "the usual way", then how? A baby (painted) pteri is an egg, distinct from other baby Neopets, so for most species, it's probably not a case of egg-laying and/or asexual reproduction as is the case with petpetpets (such as in Habitarium).

 

Is there a pantheon of giant "mother" Neopets, like a queen bee, who just spend all day producing litters of new Neopets who go to some unspecified location to mature into non-babies and learn useful phrases like "Blech, I'm not eating that!" and "I sure would like to play some Gormball", and all Neopets of any one species are actually related?

 

Or could it just be as simple as that we, as owners, have the magical power to breathe life into their lifeless shells when we hit "Create a new pet"? Because then, what about all the "NPC" pets who live in a society and don't have owners?

 

I know I'm taking it all a bit seriously, but I thought it was an interesting philosophical topic as far as Neopets were concerned, and would love to hear what others think. :D

[Jake.]

Look at Brunos family...

 

Gelert, Lupe, Ixi, Zafara, Skeith

[jesse_rocket]

Ah, I hadn't considered him!

 

But that raises further questions - Did Edmund (Skieth) and Alice (Zafara) produce "in the usual way" offspring that were a Gelert, an Ixi, and a Lupe, making what species a Neopet is born quite random (like an extra layer to "will it be a boy or a girl or a Quiggle?") or did they adopt them? :D

[seuzy13]

Ah, I hadn't considered him!

 

But that raises further questions - Did Edmund (Skieth) and Alice (Zafara) produce "in the usual way" offspring that were a Gelert, an Ixi, and a Lupe, making what species a Neopet is born quite random (like an extra layer to "will it be a boy or a girl or a Quiggle?") or did they adopt them? :D

 

Maybe the Neopets equivalent of a stork brings baby Neopets to their parents. That would be a Lenny. Yes, Lennys bring them babies from a magic Neopet factory in the sky.

 

(If you haven't been exposed to the mythology about storks bringing newborn children to their parents, this is gibberish. :laughingsmiley: )

[Jake.]

Cylara's family is all cybunnies, so mommy and daddy of same species CAN mate, and CAN produce the same species.

[jesse_rocket]

Thank you Jake, for providing factage, I appreciate it :D As I said, I did only a little research on the subject.

 

So perhaps (if we compare and contrast Bruno's family and Cylara's family), parents of the same species simply have a higher chance of producing the same species? And when the parents' species are different, their genes both become recessive.

 

I love the idea of a Lenny-stork. Do you think they all wear mailman caps like in Dumbo? :D

[Sakurabelle]

I was playing neoquest II a while ago and realized that all of the families in neoquest II have the same issue as Bruno's family. The mother, father, and children are all different species of neopets. However, if you play Mutant Graveyard of Doom (is that the right name?) you will notice in the intro that it's a family of all poogles.

 

Basically it's a mystery. But I rather like the idea of a magic factory in the sky where neopets are made and grown up, then delivered by a lenny. *gasp* Maybe that's what faeries do! Maybe they create little neopets...

[selusa]

Interesting, interesting question you pose there. I, for one, think of it as something akin to multiracial families (and I hope I'm not going to be perceived as racist for saying things like 'white' and 'black', because God knows what sets people off nowadays). If you have two white parents (or two Cybunny parents, say), then you're going to get white babies (or Neopet babies of the same species). And two black parents = black babies, two asian parents = asian babies, and so on. However, if you have a black father and white mother, or, y'know, any combination of any two distinct races, you get babies that are a combination of their parents' skin colors and distinctive features, and are unique unto themselves.

 

That's not to say that an Ixi and a Kougra would produce a Kau offspring (stripes + hooves = Kau?), but I think perhaps it's along those same lines. Neopets are the ruling, intelligent denizens of the world of Neopia, just as humans are to earth, so it stands to reason that they share these particular characteristics of humans.

[Judge of Paradise]

I had this same thought go through my mind when I was playing the Darkest Faerie, and King Hagan called Roberta his niece.

 

I was all "Huwhut? Skeith... Acara... wait, how is that possible?! ..... maybe she was adopted"

 

AHA, THERE'S YOUR ANSWER, THEY'RE ALL ADOPTED

[Kuroida]

yeah but adopted from where? XD

 

And I bet you they're like Digimon. They're all created from discarded data :P

 

In reality, animals have to be the same species to interbreed (eg: Horse + Donkey = Mule) but Neopets clearly seems to say that each pet is a DIFFERENT species....

[Angeló]

King Clotzan III was a Lupe .. yet his daughter Amira is an Aisha ... and his other daughter , Vyssa , is an Usul

 

TNT mentioned more than once that the Neopets characters in Neopia don't undergo the same rules that OUR neopets have ... it's confusing , I know , but they seem to be happy with that explanation .. that's why you have Jazan (Kyrii) married to Nabile (Ixi) .. and Roxton (Lutari) in love with Clara (Wocky) .. also apparently Hanso (Ixi) and Brynn (Kougra) ...

[selusa]

TNT mentioned more than once that the Neopets characters in Neopia don't undergo the same rules that OUR neopets have

 

I find that really weird, but I guess it makes sense. If you look at all their drawings of such characters, there are subtle differences. They usually have hands (for lack of a better word) instead of paws/hooves/whatever, I've noticed. Maybe it's like different types of animals within a species (Spider monkeys vs. gorillas) or something similar. Or maybe I'm just over-thinking this waaay too much. XP

[Fever]

I was reading through all these and I saw a pattern popping up.

 

Maybe if the two parents are the same species, their babies will be their same species. And if they are two different species (like Bruno's parents, and maybe even Hanso and Brynn), it's totally random...

[julu_pet_14]

They usually have hands (for lack of a better word) instead of paws/hooves/whatever, I've noticed. Maybe it's like different types of animals within a species (Spider monkeys vs. gorillas) or something similar. Or maybe I'm just over-thinking this waaay too much. XP

I've noticed that too, and it goes back a long ways in plots that those Neopets have more human-like characteristics. I think it stands to reason that TNT wants to appeal to us as humans, not as pet owners when it comes to plots. I mean honestly, how many of our pets at home have discovered an entire desert or stumbled upon an ancient artifact that causes mass destruction to a country? The idea that plot characters are separate from our own pets makes a load of sense.

[EchoEternal]

Since we know new pets come from the "Create a Pet" page, maybe the theoretical answer is that npc's also come from such a place. After all, they are still Neopets with the same categories of species and color.

 

If this were so, it follows that two pets that wanted babies would have to go to such a place and create one. Some might choose to create babies of the same species, but if the mother and father are different species, why not create children of other species?

 

I don't think it's realistic to think of Neopets reproducing in the way animals do, except maybe in the case of Draiks. There's the nest and there are eggs. A nest indicates incubation...hmmm...

[dasavo]

Everyone has been considering the neopets that we own and the "NPC" as being "the same", but I think these neopets are completely independent from each other. There never has been any mention of owners in plots and games and such. So I think that the neopets that we own are born in the "materialization" out of thin air, because these neopets will never have have true biological brothers or sisters or parents or aunts or cousins. Etc. But the NPCs are an entirely different matter. Probably because the site is a child friendly site, the babies would be "created out of love". That's what I thought when I was a kid. That when two people are in love and get married, they suddenly can produce a baby in some kind of mysterious way.